Two guys and a girl

Annie has been going out with James for a year. He is great guy but never takes her seriously. Then Mathew moves to town and there is definately sparks between the two. Now she must decide between them, but who will she choose?
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Chapters:

I shut down the computer; gathered up my books and stuffed
them into my bag and got up from the desk. It had been along day
and I just couldn't wait to get out of there. The hours just
seemed to be dragging by, but now it was finally the end of the
day.

I walked slowly through the halls, Ignoring the noise and
confusion, as I made my way to my locker. As I twisted the dial
on my locker. I opened the door and three old lunches fell out.
Whilst I was deciding whether I should dump them back in my
locker or to go look for a trash can, a pair of warm hands
reached around from behind me and closed over my eyes. Finally a
voice, presumably belonging to the hands, said, "Guess
who?"

I giggled.

"Alright James, what's going on?"

"Nothing," he said.

"I just wanted to talk to you for a few minutes. I have
soccer training this afternoon. We've hardly spent any time
together this week.

"I know," I sighed.

I put my stuff down and turned to face
him.

"You know how important my activities are to me," I replied.
"I like to be busy. Sometimes our schedules don't fit with our
plans...Do you have to go to your grandmother's party to
night?"

I staggered against the lockers and took his hands in
mine.

"Yeah, you know there's no way I can get out of that. It's
her seventieth birthday, a big deal."

He stared into my eyes. I lowered them to the
floor.

"Listen, Annie,' he went on. "What are you doing
tomorrow?"

"Hanging out with you?!" I asked
hopefully.

"Sounds good to me. I'll be home around ten thirty call me,
okay?"

"Okay" I answered.

I grinned and kissed him on the cheek.

My smile faded as I watched him walk away. For James, life
was a big joke, he never took things seriously. Actually James
could be very serious, when he wanted to be. Which was not very
often. It was almost as if he was afraid to let anything matter
to him. Sometimes I wondered if he really did love me, did he see
our relationship heading anywhere or was it all just a joke. But
there was a lot more to James. He was a Kind and compassionate
and capable of showing great concern towards others. Sometimes
when the two of us were alone, he was sweet and
tender.

I loved James - most of the time, but sometimes I felt
bothered about him. Something was not right, something was not
clicking. How could I love him (Was it real love anyway?) and be
annoyed by him all at once? I wanted to spend time with him, be
with him. I knew buried somewhere deep inside him was the feeling
that my activities kept us apart. It angered me. He just never
understood how important they were to me. He just didn't
care.

I slammed my locker door shut and kicked it with great
force. I hoped I had dented it. Clutching an armload of books I
headed down the back stairs and headed out
side.

Feeling very light headed, despite everything, I walked down
toward Stonington Primary school to collect my younger sister
Betsy. Today I was late because of talking to James. The school
looked deserted, it usually did on a Fridays. I saw Betsy,
sitting on a swing in the playground. Her overstuffed schoolbag
was at her feet and she was reading a book. She looked terribly
small and alone - a little old-fashioned girl, long braids with
tied ribbons, wearing a plain dress, navy knee socks and
sneakers.. I kept trying to buy her jeans and sweaters. But she
would have none of them - she would do things her way. Add being
very outspoken and intelligent to wearing funny clothes and you
come up with a sensitive little adult child, who had very few
friends. Oh well she was my sister and I loved
her.

"Betsy!" I called.

She looked up and waved solemnly. She gathered all of her
things and trotted over to me.

"Hi," I said. "How was your day?"

"Oh you know the usual" She replied. "My subjects were ok. I
got an A on a spelling test and an A plus on a maths test. I got
everything on the test right including the extra credit, which
explains the A plus. Otherwise how else would you get an A plus,
that would mean doing better than everyone else and that's
impossible"

"I guess so" I replied.

. As soon asBetsy and I arrived home, Alice headed over for
the cookie jar.

"Just one," I reminded her.

At five o'clockBetsy and I were curled up on the on the
couch in the living room, buried deep in our books, when the
front door slammed. We both jumped.

"Hello!" Erik (my brother) yelled. "I'm
home!"

"No kidding," said Betsy.

He dumped his bag, helmet and a pair of sneakers and left
everything in a heap in the living room, grabbing his soccer
ball.

"Heads up!" He yelled.

"No!" I yelled. Too late.The ball was already in the air. It
bounced of the wall and smacked Erik right in the face. "Ow! My
nose!"

'Serves you right!" said Betsy.

They started to argue.

"Come on", I said to both of them. "Let's start
dinner"

Dinner reparations were progressed as usual; we had
everything down to a science. Even though, we always seemed to
make huge mess. But somehow dinner was already made by the time
dad got home. We had a good meal and at seven o'clock we were
still sitting around the table, lazily sipping tea. I then got up
and started to clear the table, my sisterBetsy joined me. Ever
since mum died things had changed forever. Suddenly we had to
look after ourselves and take care of the house. It was so much
harder now, sometimes I even found myself crying at night. I'll
never forget that night. It was raining that night; we were all
in bed asleep, when suddenly the phone rang. Dad answered. I
could actually see the blood draining from his face. Then he hung
up, he was almost at tears.

"No she……..the doctors did everything thing they could do to
save her."

Betsyburst into tears, dad went to
comfort her. I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. I
couldn't believe what I had just heard. This morning she seemed
so alive, so full of life it was hard to imagine what it would be
like without her. That was three years ago. It brought back
feelings of being scared and alone, so alone that all the people
in the world could not have comforted me. I had thought I would
never be happy again.

At ten forty five pm

I was curled up in bed reading to kill a mocking bird, my
all time favourite book. I was waiting to talk to James. I tried
ringing him at ten thirty and had gotten no answer. I tried again
a minute ago but still no answer. This was killing
me!

I tried again.

One ring, two, three, four.

A breathless, "Hello"

"Hi, James. It's me," I said.

"Hey", he said.

"Tried calling before but there was no
answer"

"Yeah, we just got in. I'm so exhausted, I can barley
stand"

"So, what about tomorrow?" I asked.

"Huh?" he said.

"What did you want to do tomorrow?' I repeated my self,
feeling rather agitated.

"Oh, yeah. Want to take the kids on a
picnic?"

"That sounds like fun", I said brightening up a bit. "Call
me around ten okay?"